PART 3: The Question That Ended the Wedding
“Dad, you’re humiliating me!” Crispin said, planting himself between Robert and Jessica.
My husband halted a few feet short of the altar. The white satin strained across his shoulders, and my mother’s pearl buttons were barely hanging on at the back.
In another situation, I might have laughed myself.
But Robert’s hands were trembling.
“Son, I tried to tell you privately. You wouldn’t listen.”
Crispin stared at him in disbelief.
“So you decided to wear Mom’s wedding dress in front of a hundred people?”
“I know how this looks.”
“Do you?”
Robert nodded.
“I do. And I’m sorry. But there’s something you need to hear before you marry Jessica.”
Jessica stepped forward.
“He’s trying to ruin our wedding because he doesn’t like me.”
I moved to stand beside my husband.
“Jessica, I asked you about this earlier. You wouldn’t answer.”
She turned to me.
“Margaret, please don’t encourage him.”
I drew a breath.
“I’m not encouraging a spectacle. I’m asking for the truth.”
Robert opened the envelope.
“Jessica, are you still legally married to Mark Caldwell?”
For several seconds, no one stirred.
Then Jessica shook her head.
“No. That marriage ended years ago.”
Robert held out the document.
“Then where’s the divorce or annulment order?”
Jessica looked to Crispin.
“Honey, I told you about Mark. You know how awful that marriage was.”
Crispin nodded hesitantly.
“You said it was annulled.”
“It was supposed to be.”
Robert lowered the paper.
“Supposed to be?”
Jessica’s eyes brimmed with tears.
“The paperwork was complicated. Mark wouldn’t cooperate.”
Crispin stared at her.
“Jessica, are you divorced or not?”
She didn’t answer.
Her silence told us more than any document could.
The Question Robert Had Been Waiting to Ask
The officiant quietly suggested we move to the adjoining sitting room.
Robert agreed immediately.
“Crispin, you don’t owe anybody a public explanation. Let’s talk somewhere private.”
But Jessica grabbed Crispin’s hand.
“No. If we’re going to do this, let’s do it right here. I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Robert looked at her.
“Then answer one more question.”
She crossed her arms.
“What now?”
He pulled a printed flight itinerary from the envelope.
“Why are you booked on a one-way flight to Lisbon tomorrow morning under the name Jessica Caldwell?”
Jessica’s composure crumbled.
Crispin took the paper.
“What is this?”
“A flight reservation,” Robert said. “Mark sent it to me yesterday. I couldn’t confirm who paid for it, but the name and date are right there.”
Jessica shook her head.
“Mark’s trying to destroy my life. You have no idea what he’s capable of.”
I stepped closer.
“Then tell us whether you booked the flight.”
She faced me.
“Margaret, please.”
“It’s a simple question.”
Her voice shrank.
“Yes. I booked it.”
Crispin stared at her.
“You were leaving tomorrow?”
“I wasn’t necessarily going to take it.”
“Then why buy the ticket?”
She broke into tears.
“Because I was scared. Mark’s been threatening me, and I needed a way out.”
Crispin’s jaw tightened.
“A way out of what? Our marriage?”
“No! I love you!”
“Then why didn’t you tell me any of this?”
She reached for him, but he backed away.
I could see the moment his trust began to give way.
The Money
Robert handed Crispin another document.
“There’s something else, son. The account Jessica gave you for the house payment doesn’t belong to the title company.”
Crispin looked puzzled.
“What account?”
“The one on the transfer instructions she sent you last week.”
Crispin pulled out his phone and opened his banking app.
I watched his face change.
“Jessica, I transferred eighteen thousand dollars on Thursday.”
She went pale again.
“I know.”
“You told me it was for closing expenses.”
“It was supposed to be.”
“Where did it go?”
She glanced at the guests, who were watching from their seats.
“Can we please discuss this privately?”
This time, Crispin agreed.
“Yes. We can.”
He turned to the officiant.
“I’m sorry, but we need to pause the ceremony.”
The officiant nodded, and the wedding coordinator led us into a small room beside the bridal suite.
The moment the door shut, Crispin rounded on Jessica.
“Where is my money?”
She sank into a chair.
“I used some of it to pay Mark.”
“How much?”
“Most of it.”
Crispin stared at her.
“You took eighteen thousand dollars from our house fund to pay your husband?”
Jessica started crying again.
“He said he’d tell you everything if I didn’t. I was trying to make him go away.”
“Then why didn’t you come to me?”
“Because I knew you’d leave.”
Crispin looked down at the floor.
“You let me plan a wedding with you while you were still married to somebody else. You took my money, and you booked a flight out of the country.”
Jessica reached for his arm.
“I was going to fix it.”
He pulled away.
“How?”
She had no answer.
Robert stood near the door, my veil draped over his arm.
For once, he kept quiet.
The Bride Who Couldn’t Explain
Jessica tried again and again to persuade Crispin that it had all been a misunderstanding.
She said Mark had manipulated her. She claimed she’d planned to repay the money after the wedding. She insisted the flight was only a precaution and that she’d never meant to abandon Crispin.
Some of what she said might have been true.
But none of it explained why she had lied to the man she was about to marry.
At last, Crispin asked the question I’d been waiting to hear.
“Jessica, if Dad hadn’t found out, would you have told me any of this?”
She looked at him.
“Eventually.”
“Before or after the wedding?”
She lowered her eyes.
Crispin nodded slowly.
“That’s what I thought.”
Jessica cried harder.
“Please don’t do this. We’ve been together three years.”
He looked at her with an expression that broke my heart.
“I was ready to spend the rest of my life with you, Jessica. You couldn’t even tell me who you were still married to.”
She reached for him again.
“I love you.”
He stepped back.
“I don’t know what that means anymore.”
For a long moment, nobody spoke.
Then Crispin unpinned the boutonnière from his jacket and set it on the small table beside him.
“I’m not marrying you today.”
